Improvement in marine paints



UNITED STATES Pr s-sinf- JOHN J. CURRIER AND LEONARD COOK, OF GLOUCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENT IN MARINE PAINTS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 122,111), dated December 26, 1371.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, JOHN J. CURRIER and LEONARD COOK, of Gloucester, in the county of Essex and State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improved Marine Paint; and we do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description thereof.

The object of this inventionis to provide acheap and serviceable basis for marine paint, which, when mixed with or ground in suitable vehicles, will make a paint capable of preserving the bottoms of ships and other wooden or other structures when exposed to sea-wat-er, preventing the adhesion of barnacles and sea-weeds, and resisting the destructive attacks of worms and insects.

We have discovered that the sulphur-ct of copper, when ground to fine powder, forms a basis for paint of this description, and that it has the desired protecting properties and we have discovered that an artificial compound of metallic copper and sulphur, or sulphuret of copper, is a better protecting agent for ships bottoms than the natural sulphuretcd ore.

To enable others to make use of our invention we will describe one mode of making our paint, as follows: \Ve procure from smelters of sulphureted copper ores one ofthe products of their fur naces, made in the process of converting these ores int-o pig metal by smelting, and known to them as white metal, which contains about sixty-five per cent. of copper and thirty-five per cent. of sulphur, more or less, and which is easily pulverized. We grind this sulphuret of copper to fine powder in suitable mills, and then mix or grind it in wood-tar and coal-tar naphtha using about equal measures of tamper, in other suitable vehicles, making it into paint in the ordinary manner known to manufacturers of marine paints. We generally use about three and a half pounds of this ground sulphuret of copper to make one gallon of paint, but vary this weight to meet the requirements of difierent cases, always exercising care to have our paint, when ready for use, of suitable consistency to be easily applied with brushes.

We prefer to use this sulphuret of copper in the form of the copper-smelters product above described, because it is comparatively cheap, nearly pure, and easily ground to fine powder. We have used a sulphuret made by melting metallic copper and sulphur together, or by adding sulphur to melted copper; and also the regulus of copper smelters, which is a more impure sulphuret of copper.

When it is desirable to color, extend, or cheapen this basis we mix or grind with it, in the paint, common ochres, barytes, or other pigments; and it is evident that such substances and makeweights may be added in large quantities without afi'ecting the eificiency of the proportion of sulphuret of copper present. We have also used a compound made by melting copper, sulphur, and white arsenic together, and desire to secure this compound of sulphuret of copper also, but it is more expensive than the others, and apparently not any better basis for paint; and we do not wish to confine ourselves to the vehicle named above, as wood and coal-tars, oils, naphthas of different kinds, or other substitutes, may be employed.

We are aware that oxide of copper, with or without other bases, has been used in marine paints; and also that sulphuret of copper ground with the oxidizing agent, oxide of manganese in tar and naphtha, thus producing in see-1" flier, practically, oxide of copper, has been proposed as a paint; but we disclaim all such compounds, believing that, previous to cm discovery, sulphuret of copper as such, either artificial or natural, had not been used as the basis for a protecting-paint for ships bottoms or for a marine paint.

What we claim as our invention is- 1. The marine paint consisting ofsul )huret of copper, natural or artificial, and a suitable vehicl'e, su stantially as described.

2. The marine paint consisting of sulphuret of copper, natural or artificial, melted or mixed with white arsenic and a suitable vehicle, substantially as described.

JOHN J. CURRIER. LEONARD COOK. Witnesses:

A. PRESSON,

ISRAEL 0. MAYO. (107) 

